Quote from: zpyder on August 22, 2011, 16:56:20 PM
Gah, I get confused, I meant bigger aperture, so that I could get the stem of the mushroom in focus too...

You were right first time, bigger aperture means more DOF (1.8 bigger than 14) because it's actually (1/1.8 & 1/14)

Make sense?

Love the colour on the shroom and moss BTW

Quote from: Russell on August 22, 2011, 17:02:56 PM
What was it taken at?  There's no exif data on the one on flickr.

Really? Its all here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zpyder/6061458517/meta/in/photostream

You just click the "taken with..." link in the top right and it gives you all the info. 0.5s exposure, f8

Never noticed that one was there, usually just use a exif plugin for firefox and all it was showing was the date and photographer fields.

Must have been fairly gloomy if if your reduced to 0.5s, Am sure I've seen a video somewhere showing someone using a refelector to help get some more light can't say I've tried it myself mind.

I should have taken a picture of the location, it was pretty unique. Dense woodland canopy sure, but the tree that the fungus was growing on had fallen at an angle and came to rest against another tree. Over time some shrubs had grown up, and this was on the underside, so I was basically photographing a 2cm wide mushroom growing on the underside of a wooden arch in the middle of dense woodland...

haha nice, sounds like a fun place to try and get a decent shot, certainly doesn't look like its upside down either.

Might try and remember from now on to get just a generic shot of the location where I've taken something, just to show where it was etc  I've done it once before with a frost macro but might help when explaining things though.

Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus) by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

I'm curious which people think is better in terms of composition etc:


Bloody Nosed Beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa) by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

or


Bloody Nosed Beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa) by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Probably the 2nd, if you were more side on to it so you could see more of the bug it would work better if it was something like a ladybird that had more detail on its back with its spots, however the 1st one is good because of the detail in it.

Still good photos though!

I'm thinking I wish I'd done the 2nd one portrait, to emphasise the beetle climbing to the top of the flower spike.  I agree about side on, but I didn't know if the beetle was going to fly off at any point so took as many photos as I could. Oh well

Actually you might want to try cropping off the right hand side of the image to make it portrait, was viewing the forum before on my phone and it only showed around half the photo in one go and it looked good.

Hmm, I might try that sometime Does make me wish I'd got the stem in the shot though, no reason why I couldn't have really either

Here's a selection, couple from Poole harbour and the rest from this weekend when I went on a Marine Natural History society field trip.

Totally unintentional but I managed to catch some critter in the mud squirting water into the air on the right hand side, looks like the Oyster Catcher was watching it.

Oik and squirt by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Flying egret by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Crow Power by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Chiton by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Sunset by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Piling 2 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Some good stuff there as ever, wonder what could have caused that squirt, its rather good at it whatever it is!

Why is it that animals all seem to just *know* what the maximum "usable" distance is for whatever focal length you're using, and then position themselves just outside of it? I bet if I was using a 100mm macro the kingfisher and herons would have been half as far away... ><

Anyway, recently every time I have gone over a bridge near me I've seen an Egret looking rather elegant in the water, so figured I'd go back when the weather was good and see what I could do. Well, the Egret(s) weren't playing today and stayed on the far bank of the river, but there was a nice Heron, and then I noticed a Kingfisher make a diver 10m away. It took an hour to actually locate where they were spending most of their time (turns out there were 2 of them) and then they only perched on the other side of the bank, according to the exif data, 82m away. I do feel I have yet to take any really good images with the 100-400mm lens, though I'm not sure how much is me, how much is the subject distance/conditions, and how much is the capabilities of the lens :/


Grey Wagtail on polystyrene tub litter by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Kingfisher by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Heron by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

I should add that the the heron and kingfisher I resisted doing much PP on, but I had a play with Levels on the wagtail shot, using a darkly shaded area for the blacks, part of the upper grey wing for the grey, and the over exposed wing area for white. I think the original was alright, but this seems to work much better.

Well you've done the hard part by the looks of it, finding these sorts of birds ain't easy.  Now you just need to go get yourself a hide and get as close as you can and hope you can get some good stuff.

Suppose there's two types of photos with wildlife really, those where the subject fills the frame and shows lots of detail and those that show the subject in its environment.  These are obviously the later and actually there quite good, especially the first, actually they're all good looks like you've got the focus right on all 3 of them.

Must admit its something I need to do more, got a few of the subject, just not much with them in the environment hmm

Oh and have you thought of putting your photos in more groups on flickr, I've been sticking mine in and getting quite a few views you might get some people adding comments or giving some pointers.

I used to put my photos in groups and yeah, you're right, you get a lot more coverage. It's just an extra time sink though. I guess I should do some housekeeping some time. I always feel bad when I join a new group and blast 30 photos in a take up the whole group pool in one go. The ones that limit additions are a pain too!